At the time of writing this review I have beaten the game three times, once on Hard, once on NG+ Easy, and a final time on Impossible mode.

There are several things I'd like to mention in this post, from the graphics to game play, from bugs to performance. I just want to let you know that I like this game very much. So if you're looking for a recommendation to buy it - mine is yes, you should, if you're a fan of the genre.


Story -
The story of Dead Space the original was good, I liked it. However the story being told in this Remake is, in my opinion, excellent. The developers took a game that had an interesting premise and expanded it in very meaningful ways. In order for them to be able to do this they gave Isaac Clarke a voice, something he did not have in the original game. I have seen a few people complain about this but in my opinion it was an extremely good choice to make. This means that conversations can happen that could not happen previously. Isaac actually responds to those who talk to him, and the characters that do talk to him can ask questions where they couldn't before. The inclusion of side missions was also a really good choice to make. It added more to thr story and fleshed out some of the side characters quite a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Hunter and what Nicole was doing prior to the start of the game. All of the voice actors did a terrific job and the motion capture was amazing. I also love the way Isaac takes off his helmet in rare instances. It's good to put a face to the name.

Gameplay -
Gameplay is where the real fun begins here. The gameplay of Dead Space Remake revolves around exploration, combat, and story scenes. The shooting and kineses module is incredible. Each weapon feels like it has force and weight behind it. Even something as simple as switching the Plasma Cutter from vertical to horizontal has a satisfying feeling to it. The enemies have great reactions to being shot and cut apart, the movement of Isaac feels fluid and incredibly satisfying to control. And it's a blast to kineses blades and objects at enemies and watch them explode into pieces. The original game felt clunky, and sometimes difficult to control. This is not a criticism for the original, but in comparison to this remake the difference is clear. I played the game through with both mouse and keyboard and also an Xbox controller. Both options felt great.

One very interesting thing they did regarding exploration was remove all loading screens. The Ishimura itself is now one gigantic level that you slowly unlock over the course of the game. Those who remember the tram from the original game, the tram served as a level ender. Once you got to the tram the tram then took you to the next level. However in the remake the tram is simply a means of getting around the ship. It's similar to a carriage is Skyrim, or the fast travel from Red Dead Redemption 2. This means that they have expanded the Ishimura quite a lot. There are new areas and new paths to get between decks. It was so joyful to me to experience all of this having played the original.

Zero gravity has also been changed. Now it is similar to Dead Space 2 in that you have compete freedom to move around in the 3D space. You are no longer limited to a surface as you were in the original game. This makes exploring even more exciting, and even makes some of the boss battles in the game a little more interesting.

Another thing they changed is power nodes. You no longer require power nodes to unlock doors. All power nodes are now used for upgrading your suit and weapons. Instead, locked doors are now unlocked via a clearance level that you unlock as you progress through the game. This means there is reason to backtrack.

The side quests will be the reason you want to travel around the Ishimura. Along with weapon upgrades of course.

Graphics & Visuals -
To say this game looks breathtaking is an understatement. I absolutely loved the look of the Ishimura, playing with the lights off in HDR and seeing all of the colours and deep shadows on my screen. The frosted glass looks genuinely frosted over, as if I could feel and even smell how cold it was. The flickering lights that switch between colours to help give this feeling of insanity closing in... I have never played such a good looking survival horror game. The enemies have this peeling effect where layers of their skin can come off, and the gore explodes into blood as you cut and rip them apart with your tools. The character models looks highly detailed, extremely close to their motion captured real life actors and actresses.

As you progress forward in the game and start to see the flesh of the necromorphs take over the ship, it looks gruesome, wet, slimy, sticky, smelly. It all looks so unbelievably good to me, I can't give it enough praise. This is all subject to opinion, but my opinion is that this game looks wonderful!

Sound -
The audio fidelity of this game is also worthy of praise. Everything sounds exactly as you'd expect it to on a ship in space filled with monsters and a plasma cutting boss of an engineer. The enemies screech, moan, scream and groan. The sounds of the weapons firing and reloading is extremely satisfying to me. I loved the gravity well of the Force Gun and the drilling of the Contact Beam. The Force Gun might be my favourite Dead Space weapon after this game, purely for the way it sounds and looks as you rip the skin off of the necromorph in front of you.

The voice acting is also deserving of much praise. I think Isaac sounds incredible, he sounds as he did back in Dead Space 2 and 3 and yet he has this sound to him that's also older. He has this confidence about him that I really like and it comes across in his voice. Nicole sounds great as well, and it was lovely seeing the same actress return for the role. Kendra and Hammond also sounded great, though I can't confirm if they're the same cast as the original at this time. There are several additional minor characters who also give good performances too. Overall, audio and sound is great.

Bugs & Performance -
This wouldn't be a review without mentioning some of the negatives I found along the way, and unfortunately this game is not exempt from that.

In terms of bugs I didn't really encounter many at all. Save for the rare texture of a notice flickering on the wall or a shadow not looking quite right, I can't think of a single time the game hit me with a hard bug. However performance is another issue.

This game does, unfortunately, have some performance issues to be aware of on PC. I played the game with an RTX 2080 ti, an i9 9900K with 32GB's of RAM on an SSD running Windows 10. My performance playing at Ultra with DLSS enabled hovered around 60 fps while playing on a 21:9 3440x1440 monitor. I would occasionally dip into the lower 50s, but for the most part the game ran smoothly. However I cannot deny that there are hitches in this game. Sometimes quite substantial ones. It usually settled after loading a save and playing for a few minutes for me, but there was no getting rid of it completely. At least not that I could find. And lowering settings did not seem to help at all. This is something to be aware of if you're deciding to buy this game or not. But for me, it was not as bad as you might read about on the Steam discussion boards.

Overall Conclusion -
By this point you may have guessed - I really like this game. I do feel biased but I am trying very hard to be impartial here as well. I genuinely do think this is a great game, definitely one of the best remade games ever as of 2023. I think if you like survival horror games, games that drip with atmosphere and science fiction, you are doing yourself a disservice if you decide not to play this game. I highly recommend it. 100%.

Thanks for reading!

At the time of writing this review I have beaten the game three times, once on Hard, once on NG+ Easy, and a final time on Impossible mode. There are several things I'd like to mention in this post, from the graphics to game play, from bugs to performance. I just want to let you know that I like this game very much. So if you're looking for a recommendation to buy it - mine is yes, you should, if you're a fan of the genre. [b]Story[/b] - The story of Dead Space the original was good, I liked it. However the story being told in this Remake is, in my opinion, excellent. The developers took a game that had an interesting premise and expanded it in very meaningful ways. In order for them to be able to do this they gave Isaac Clarke a voice, something he did not have in the original game. I have seen a few people complain about this but in my opinion it was an extremely good choice to make. This means that conversations can happen that could not happen previously. Isaac actually responds to those who talk to him, and the characters that do talk to him can ask questions where they couldn't before. The inclusion of side missions was also a really good choice to make. It added more to thr story and fleshed out some of the side characters quite a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Hunter and what Nicole was doing prior to the start of the game. All of the voice actors did a terrific job and the motion capture was amazing. I also love the way Isaac takes off his helmet in rare instances. It's good to put a face to the name. [b]Gameplay[/b] - Gameplay is where the real fun begins here. The gameplay of Dead Space Remake revolves around exploration, combat, and story scenes. The shooting and kineses module is incredible. Each weapon feels like it has force and weight behind it. Even something as simple as switching the Plasma Cutter from vertical to horizontal has a satisfying feeling to it. The enemies have great reactions to being shot and cut apart, the movement of Isaac feels fluid and incredibly satisfying to control. And it's a blast to kineses blades and objects at enemies and watch them explode into pieces. The original game felt clunky, and sometimes difficult to control. This is not a criticism for the original, but in comparison to this remake the difference is clear. I played the game through with both mouse and keyboard and also an Xbox controller. Both options felt great. One very interesting thing they did regarding exploration was remove all loading screens. The Ishimura itself is now one gigantic level that you slowly unlock over the course of the game. Those who remember the tram from the original game, the tram served as a level ender. Once you got to the tram the tram then took you to the next level. However in the remake the tram is simply a means of getting around the ship. It's similar to a carriage is Skyrim, or the fast travel from Red Dead Redemption 2. This means that they have expanded the Ishimura quite a lot. There are new areas and new paths to get between decks. It was so joyful to me to experience all of this having played the original. Zero gravity has also been changed. Now it is similar to Dead Space 2 in that you have compete freedom to move around in the 3D space. You are no longer limited to a surface as you were in the original game. This makes exploring even more exciting, and even makes some of the boss battles in the game a little more interesting. Another thing they changed is power nodes. You no longer require power nodes to unlock doors. All power nodes are now used for upgrading your suit and weapons. Instead, locked doors are now unlocked via a clearance level that you unlock as you progress through the game. This means there is reason to backtrack. The side quests will be the reason you want to travel around the Ishimura. Along with weapon upgrades of course. [b]Graphics & Visuals[/b] - To say this game looks breathtaking is an understatement. I absolutely loved the look of the Ishimura, playing with the lights off in HDR and seeing all of the colours and deep shadows on my screen. The frosted glass looks genuinely frosted over, as if I could feel and even smell how cold it was. The flickering lights that switch between colours to help give this feeling of insanity closing in... I have never played such a good looking survival horror game. The enemies have this peeling effect where layers of their skin can come off, and the gore explodes into blood as you cut and rip them apart with your tools. The character models looks highly detailed, extremely close to their motion captured real life actors and actresses. As you progress forward in the game and start to see the flesh of the necromorphs take over the ship, it looks gruesome, wet, slimy, sticky, smelly. It all looks so unbelievably good to me, I can't give it enough praise. This is all subject to opinion, but my opinion is that this game looks wonderful! [b]Sound[/b] - The audio fidelity of this game is also worthy of praise. Everything sounds exactly as you'd expect it to on a ship in space filled with monsters and a plasma cutting boss of an engineer. The enemies screech, moan, scream and groan. The sounds of the weapons firing and reloading is extremely satisfying to me. I loved the gravity well of the Force Gun and the drilling of the Contact Beam. The Force Gun might be my favourite Dead Space weapon after this game, purely for the way it sounds and looks as you rip the skin off of the necromorph in front of you. The voice acting is also deserving of much praise. I think Isaac sounds incredible, he sounds as he did back in Dead Space 2 and 3 and yet he has this sound to him that's also older. He has this confidence about him that I really like and it comes across in his voice. Nicole sounds great as well, and it was lovely seeing the same actress return for the role. Kendra and Hammond also sounded great, though I can't confirm if they're the same cast as the original at this time. There are several additional minor characters who also give good performances too. Overall, audio and sound is great. [b]Bugs & Performance[/b] - This wouldn't be a review without mentioning some of the negatives I found along the way, and unfortunately this game is not exempt from that. In terms of bugs I didn't really encounter many at all. Save for the rare texture of a notice flickering on the wall or a shadow not looking quite right, I can't think of a single time the game hit me with a hard bug. However performance is another issue. This game does, unfortunately, have some performance issues to be aware of on PC. I played the game with an RTX 2080 ti, an i9 9900K with 32GB's of RAM on an SSD running Windows 10. My performance playing at Ultra with DLSS enabled hovered around 60 fps while playing on a 21:9 3440x1440 monitor. I would occasionally dip into the lower 50s, but for the most part the game ran smoothly. However I cannot deny that there are hitches in this game. Sometimes quite substantial ones. It usually settled after loading a save and playing for a few minutes for me, but there was no getting rid of it completely. At least not that I could find. And lowering settings did not seem to help at all. This is something to be aware of if you're deciding to buy this game or not. But for me, it was not as bad as you might read about on the Steam discussion boards. [b]Overall Conclusion[/b] - By this point you may have guessed - I really like this game. I do feel biased but I am trying very hard to be impartial here as well. I genuinely do think this is a great game, definitely one of the best remade games ever as of 2023. I think if you like survival horror games, games that drip with atmosphere and science fiction, you are doing yourself a disservice if you decide not to play this game. I highly recommend it. 100%. Thanks for reading!